A flurry of six third-quarter goals propelled Essendon VFL to a convincing 35-point win over Collingwood at Windy Hill on Saturday.

With a group of Bombers producing season-best efforts in wet conditions, Senior Coach Blake Caracella was full of praise in the weekly player review.

Elijah Tsatas

38 disposals, 11 clearances, three tackles

‘Lij’ has been finding the footy a lot in the last couple of weeks.

Last week (against the Suns), we had him play a couple of run-with roles at different stages to good effect, and he did the same with Ned Long on Saturday while also getting a heap of it himself.

He’s been able to close down prolific possession getters and still play his own game, so he’s coming along quite nicely.

Dylan Shiel

33 disposals, six clearances, six tackles, four marks

‘Shiely’ was really good again.

He won his own footy, helped out in defence and looked really creative with breaking tackles and opening up the game through the middle.

His leadership’s been great for all the young guys and you can just tell they love playing with him, he’s been in good touch.

Will Setterfield

26 disposals, six tackles

‘Setters’ had a strong game for us.

Typically, he was involved in and around the contest a lot and gave good tackling presence in a really prominent midfield role.

He’s been in solid form.

Lewis Hayes

18 disposals, five marks

‘Hayesy’s been going okay down back.

He’s taken on the first or second-best forwards more so in recent weeks and held up pretty well early on Saturday, even when the ball was coming in more than we would’ve liked.

He joined in the attack on a few occasions for us with some clever decisions in defence too, which was promising.

Nick Bryan

46 hit-outs, 26 disposals, 12 clearances, one goal

Dominant.

In the last quarter, they threw Long into the ruck to try and work ‘Bristle’ around the ground but he held up really strongly and continued his form.

He had a fantastic all-around game.

Alwyn Davey Jnr

10 disposals, two tackles

Alwyn was a bit quiet in the early stages, but when we got our run going in the third term he had a little purple patch which gave us a lift.

He was in the contest and pressuring but also creating opportunities with his forward positioning, so it’s good to see him developing.

Luamon Lual

18 disposals, four marks, three tackles

‘Luey’s showing a real ability to find the footy and use his athletic ability to transition contested ball wins to outside run.

He defended his opponents really well and competed hard to go with his ball-in-hand stuff, so we were impressed with his game.

Jayden Davey

Nine disposals, one goal

Jayden was a bit unlucky with lack of opportunity in the first term, often outnumbered like the other forwards.

After the break, he found himself more involved in the game and made things happen just from being around the ball, even if he only had it the nine times.

Archie Roberts

24 disposals, four marks, three tackles, one goal

‘Robbo’ had another good game.

He didn’t have a full game for a two-week period there (following a bye and being rested at half-time as an AFL emergency the week prior), but he’s been in good form over the last two weeks.

He was involved a lot in the contest but looked pretty clean on the outside given the conditions. As a first year player, he’s developing really well.

Vigo Visentini

12 disposals, seven hit-outs

‘Vigs’ had a quiet patch in the last couple of weeks, but I thought he was good on Saturday.

He’s gotten back to doing what we’ve seen from him when he’s at his best, creating opportunities through little knock-ons, giving us an advantage in the forward half, a toe-poke to set up a goal for Oskar Smartt.

He’s a team-first player and he should be pleased with his game.

Tex Wanganeen

10 disposals, four marks

This is Tex’s third game down back after a really good performance against Gold Coast last week.

He got a few knocks and a couple of corkies from aerial contests which affected his output in the last quarter, but he’s continuing to learn the positioning back there and giving us a good option with his pace and ball use exiting defensive 50.

VFL performers

Will Hoare

19 disposals, 10 marks

‘Hoarey’ found himself in the forward line a few weeks ago against the Blues and impressed us with his effort given he hasn’t played much in that role, but he’s been good since moving back to defence.

On Saturday, ‘Hurls’ spoke to him at half-time around tidying up defensively and he looked super solid after the break. Once he gets to the ball in the air, it’s not too often it sees daylight again – his hands were great.

Jack Jedwab

11 disposals, five goals, three marks

Pretty good birthday for him!

Jack’s had some injury troubles this year and managed a few games this year, but to work his way back in over the last couple of games, compete really hard and show good form has been promising to see.

He looked really clean at ground level too, which was very handy for our forwards on a wet day.

Jared Eckersley

16 disposals, eight marks, three goals

‘Eckers’ has become something of a key forward for us in recent weeks and has been going really nicely.

He looked dangerous against Gold Coast last week and got on the board again this week with 3.3, which was a great result.